What Harry Taught Belle Chester.
By Ernest Gilmore
A dance of blue-bells in the shady places,
A crimson flush of sunset in the west;
The cobwebs, delicate as fairy laces,
The sudden finding of a wood-bird's nest. THE Chesters lived in a beautiful home in the suburbs of the city of C—. Belle, the only child, did not appreciate the beauty of her surroundings. She was a selfish, fretful girl of ten, always finding something to trouble her. Just now her vexation was considerable, because nearly opposite her father's elegant mansion small lots had been sold to a half dozen mechanics from the city. Each had put up a simple little cottage, surrounded with wire paling, and their families were moving in. One family was already settled, and as Belle walked past proudly, pushing a pretty little doll carriage with velvet cushion and trimmings, in which sat her aristocratic Victoria Amelia, whose wardrobe was imported from London, she noticed a beautiful little boy of about five years playing in the little yard. He did not see her, and, while she was looking, he sat down on a garden chair and folded his hands as if in prayer. "I'd like to know what you were doing with your eyes shut in the day-time," she said saucily to the child as he approached the fence to see the beautiful doll carriage. "I didn't sink any body saw me," he answered with flushed face. "I saw you. What were you doing? You wern't praying in the day-time were you?" Belle asked, scornfully. The boy was no coward, he looked up fearlessly as the tone stung him. "I was prayin'," he said. "Mamma prays in the day-time an' I do, too, when I want to; dere's a lot to pray for over here." "Humph! what's to pray for I'd like to know?" The child looked at Belle reproachfully, as he answered: "Oh, everything, bes' of all mine papa don't drink any more, an' this house is ours. Just fink, mamma's, an' papa's, an' mine---all our own---ain't it wuth fankin' God for? we never had any house before." Belle's heart was touched, but she only said, proudly:—
"If you think your house is so fine, what do you think of mine? There it is just over the way." Harry looked over to the beautiful home, flushed with crimson from the western sky. There were bluebells hugging close to the pretty fence, and a pet fawn of Belle's was scampering over the lawn. Birds were singing in the trees, and roses climbing over the trellises. Harry was charmed. "I fink it must be most like Heaven," he said, slowly. "I fink if I had your home I'd fank God all day long." Belle turned away, and rolled Victoria Amelia home. She was thoroughly ashamed of herself. No, she had not thanked God all day, not even one little part of a day. She could not remember of ever having felt thankful. But she was thankful now, and with thankfulness came cheerfulness and generosity. She even remembered to invite her little teacher to spend a whole day in her now delightful home.—Ernest Gilmore, in Christian at Work.